Impossible Girl
by AlwaysPadfoot
Summary: James is at rock bottom; then he meets his soulmate. Soulmate!AU.


**AN** : Prompts will be displayed at the bottom to avoid them potentially giving away things.

 **QL AN** : I've decided use the plot point 'being betrayed by someone you trust' from one of the final scenes of the movie I was given.

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 **Impossible Girl**

 **AlwaysPadfoot**

* * *

 _I thought I'd hit rock bottom, but apparently rock bottom has a basement._

James Potter loses his mother a few days after returning home from his sixth year.

She passes away in the night. James' only saving grace is that at least her death is peaceful. With the war at its height, he thanks Merlin that his family hasn't been attacked like so many others have. That being said, it doesn't make it any easier for him to manage. The woman who raised him is no longer there. She will never again wake him up in the morning. She will never see him finish Hogwarts, or meet his soulmate, or spoil his kids like his grandmother once had.

James finds himself lower than low — lost.

The night that follows her death, James leaves the house and walks until his feet ache. The fresh summer air helps him breathe just a little bit easier.

Though now he is lost — both metaphorically and literally.

He hopes that if he just keeps walking then he'll recognise something and be able to find his way home. As he continues down the road, his mind turns from his mother to another topic that seems to cause him more pain than joy.

The fact that Lily Evans isn't his soulmate; the fact that for six years, he presumed that she was and it turned out he was wrong. He's spent so many years fixated on the moment they accidentally bumped into one another on the train platform before first year. Fixated on how, later that evening, he discovered that his soulmark had changed and Lily's the only girl he remembers touching.

She can't be.

She's shown him her soulmark — a potions shelf collecting coloured vials — so she can't be the one.

James feels cheated. His soulmark hasn't changed since the sleeping outline of a fawn below his collarbone opened its eyes all those years ago. Does he not deserve a soulmate?

 **oOo**

 _Aim for the moon and land amongst the stars, or whatever it is._

James takes to walking around aimlessly most nights — his mind in turmoil.

In the weekend that follows his mother's death, he finds himself walking through a small park. Nature has always calmed him, and after days of traipsing through residential areas at night, a change of scenery feels like the right thing in the moment. He's only about fifty yards into the park when he hears someone crying.

His eyes search the dark for the source and finally, his gaze falls on a girl sitting on a nearby bench.

It's late. The girl is all alone and James feels wrong about just walking on by and paying her no mind. So instead, he approaches the bench, hovering at the opposite end to where the girl was sat.

"Are you okay?" James knows she obviously isn't okay, but he doesn't want to pry if the girl doesn't want to talk to him. He pulls a red handkerchief from his pocket and holds it out. "Here — to wipe your eyes."

"Oh, no. No, you don't have to do that." She sniffs, looking horrified that James has seen her crying.

"Please, I insist."

She tentatively takes the handkerchief from him and wipes her eyes. "Thank you. I'm sorry; I must look absolutely awful."

"If it helps, I really don't think you look awful," James replies.

"That's kind of you to say, but I don't believe you."

"Do you want to tell me why you're upset?" James asks. "You don't have to, just, if you want to get something off your chest, I could use a distraction."

The girl sighs, tucking an escaped tendril of brown hair from her ponytail behind her ear. She looks down at her slender fingers, still clutching James' handkerchief, and for a long moment, she's quiet. Just when he's sure that she isn't going to confide in him, she starts to speak.

"Vernon, my fiancé, is sleeping with some… some slag in his office," she tells him.

James' eyebrows raise. He sees a flicker of fire behind her eyes and the disgust in her expression. She's not just upset, she's furious.

"What a wanker," James responds simply.

"I know, right!" The girl smiles briefly and then exhales shakily. "I just—I don't know what to do. I don't know whether to confront him, or dump him, or… something else."

"If I know anything, it's that you don't deserve to be cheated on by anyone," James says. "Let me ask you this: are you willing to forgive him? Or are you going to spend the rest of your life worrying that he is going to do it again?"

 **oOo**

 _When nothing goes to plan, try, try again._

After that night in the park, James walks the girl home. As they walk, he learns two things: that this Vernon guy is going to get his ass handed to him by the girl when they break up, and that the girl's name is Petunia.

Before he leaves her at the gate of her house, he opens his mouth and asks her on a date.

At the time, he curses himself. She's about to break up with her fiancé and somewhere out there in the world, he has a soulmate waiting for him. But when she says yes, James walks home lighter than air.

That's why, now, he's knocking on her door all dressed up in his best Muggle clothes.

When Petunia answers, she takes his breath away. She glows with beauty, somehow even more pretty now than when they first met. She's wearing a floral dress and sandals, dressed appropriately for the sun beating down from a cloudless sky. James, if anything, is a little hot and perhaps a tad overdressed, but Petunia returns the compliment after he tells her that she looks beautiful.

Everything that could go wrong, does. During their walk through the park, they are both chased by several angry-looking geese, which they escape by jumping a low wall. When they stop to eat, the less-than-cheerful waiter they have forgets to put their order in and they end up waiting for over forty-five minutes. After their lunch, they go to leave and discover that the heavens have opened.

"Well, that did not go according to plan," James sighs.

He curses the torrential rain and their bad luck. His hand twitches towards his wand, desperate to shelter them from the rain, but instead, Petunia rummages in her bag and takes out an extendable umbrella.

"A lady always comes prepared," she says.

"How wonderfully efficient." James beams as she puts up the umbrella. "What else do you have in that bag?"

"That's for me to know, and for you to probably never find out," she replies with a grin.

They step out into the rain, huddled awkwardly against one another under the umbrella. It's as though they both realise how close they are as they stand on the curb of the pavement. James turns and offers to hold the umbrella so he doesn't have to duck his head at an awkward angle.

"Well, I'm certainly not dressed for this weather," Petunia says softly.

They're face to face, barely more than a couple of inches apart. James can smell her perfume; he can make out the spattering of freckles on her cheeks. He realises he's looking at her with a goofy smile on his face when Petunia blushes.

"What?" she asks, unable to hide her smile and the fact her cheeks are rapidly turning pink. "What? What is it?"

"Nothing. You just look beautiful."

"Oh." Petunia beams, her blue eyes sparkling and voice soft and bashful. "Thank you."

James shifts as their gazes lock. She leans in, raising up onto her tiptoes. He feels his heart in his throat, excitement making his skin tingle as he leans down to kiss her.

Unfortunately, their lips never meet. A car races past through the large puddle in the road beside them and Petunia squeals. They both turn away slightly, but it's far too late. The rainwater drenches them from head to toe, leaving them both dripping wet. James' white shirt clings to his skin, fast turning see through, and he scowls.

"What a deplorable thing to do. What absolute and utter morons," he says through gritted teeth. "Petunia, are you okay? Here, take my jacket. It's practically dry."

He'd been holding his jacked with the hand not by the road so it remained mostly dry. As he holds it out, he realises Petunia is staring at him — at his chest. Her eyes are wide. He frowns and looks down to the spot where his soulmark is showing through his shirt.

"Oh, that's just…" James begins.

"Your soulmark," Petunia finishes.

James is stunned by her words. Muggles don't get soulmarks, nor do they know anything about their existence. But Petunia spoke with such confidence that he is completely thrown.

"How do you know that?"

Petunia half-smiles, her expression unreadable. "Because of this."

She takes the neck of her dress and gently pulls it to the side. She reveals the outline of a fawn sitting below her collarbone.

It's an exact replica of James'.

 **oOo**

 _All at once, there arose in my heart, a battle of embers never to subside again._

Because soulmate magic is so rare and so understudied, James tells only his closest friends — Sirius, Remus, and Peter — about Petunia Evans and their matching soulmarks. He doesn't want to put her in danger from any threat in the magical world, especially with the war in full swing.

For some reason, even though James now knows that Petunia is Lily's sister, and Petunia now knows that James is from the magical world, they still continue to date.

After their reveal in the rain, their once curled-up fawn outline stood up on shaky legs. After their first kiss, the outline fills in — coloured with soft browns and cream. As they grow close, their fawn chases butterflies and gets flecks of dark brown freckles in its fur. And on the first night they sleep together, Bambi (as he's creatively named) gets the beginnings of his antlers.

James falls for her hard.

There's just under two weeks until James is due to return to Hogwarts for his final year and as he lies in bed one night, he desperately tries to come up with a viable plan to see Petunia before he comes home for Christmas. She's assured him that it will be okay. That if he can't come and see her, then they can just celebrate more come December, but he wants to make it work somehow. He's just on the cusp of coming up with an idea before he falls asleep when his soulmark tingles intensely.

Sitting up, James pulls the neck of his pyjama shirt across to see that Bambi is sprinting on the spot. There's fear in his wide blue eyes as he frantically sprints, looking back over his shoulder every so often.

Petunia is in trouble.

He Apparates on the spot. His soulmark allows him to Apparate nearly to her exact position, and he finds himself stood barefoot in an alleyway not far from Petunia's house.

"James!"

Petunia screams his name and he spins on the spot, finding her running down the alleyway towards him. Before he can do anything, a flash of blue light collides with her from behind and she screams as she falls to the ground.

"Petunia, stay down!" James is running towards her, his wand raised. "Stupefy!"

His stunning spell bounces off a shield charm uselessly and James finds himself face-to-face with a Death Eater, their wands pointed directly at one another.

"Leave, Potter, or I will kill you."

James recognises the voice; it's Mulciber. The bastard was two years above him at Hogwarts — nearly killed him on the Quidditch pitch with a Bludger when James was in fourth year.

"Not a chance, you bastard," he counters.

He's aware that Petunia is crying, the sound sedated so as to not draw attention, but he knows if he lets himself be distracted, Mulciber will kill them both.

"The Dark Lord will reward me handsomely if I bring him a Muggle with a soulmark," Mulciber says. "He'll reward you too if you let me take her."

James feels fire in his veins.

One of his friends has betrayed his trust.

With a guttural yell, he casts a knockback jinx. The ball of deep orange light hurtles through the air, and despite Mulciber's best attempt to stop it, it collides with the Death Eater's chest and knocks him into the air. He lands with a dull thud, unmoving, about twenty feet away. After casting Incarcerous on Mulciber, James summons his wand and then runs to Petunia's side.

"James," she whispers.

He takes her hand. "It's me; it's James. You know I'll take care of you now."

He moves to heal the wound that has cut into her back, softly telling her it's going to be okay. Despite the fact that he stays calm to comfort her, he finds himself filling with furious anger. How could one of his friends tell the Death Eaters about Petunia?

For now, he has to focus on making sure Petunia is safe.

But the second he knows that she is, the traitor is going to have hell to pay.

 **oOo**

 _The last day of what feels like forever before I see you again._

On the final day of the summer holidays, Petunia takes time off work, and she and James spend the day stretched out in the park where they first met.

He admires her bravery since being attacked by Mulciber, who is now safely locked in Azkaban, thanks to the Aurors James called. She bounced back quickly after they discovered that Mulciber is the only Death Eater who knew about the soulmarks.

They know this because the morning after the attack, Sirius brought Peter to James' house, and he admitted to telling Mulciber. At first, James was ready to hex him; he was ready to abandon his wand and physically fight the smaller boy. But his anger dissipated somewhat when he learnt that Mulciber had tortured Peter and his mother prior to attacking Petunia. He was not quite so pissed off when he found out that his betrayal is the only reason his friend is alive. Peter apologised over and over again, even writing Petunia a letter to do so too.

It might not be right away, but he thinks he'll be able to trust his friend again one day. He sure as hell is going to protect him from any future Death Eater attacks.

Petunia turns over beside him, effectively turning his attention from his friend to her. "You look deep in thought."

"Oh, do I?" James asks as he arches one eyebrow high with a smile. "It must be that I got permission back off my Head of House to visit you every other weekend."

Petunia sits up, her eyes wide. "You did? Oh, James, you didn't have to do that. It would have been okay."

"I'd do anything for you," James says seriously. He sits up beside her and she loops her arms around his neck, kissing him softly. James sighs contently when they break apart. He puts his arms around her waist and leans his forehead against hers. "My mother would have loved you, you know."

"You think?"

"I know she would have." James smiles as he takes Petunia's hands in his. "Probably more than me."

They both laugh at that and they fall quiet.

"I'm going to miss you, James."

"I'm going to miss you too."

Beneath their clothes, Bambi prances on the spot, his antlers gaining a little more length as their love grows deeper. He's still a fawn, but one day he'll stand proud as a stag — a force to be reckoned with.

Just like the soulmates he represents.

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 **Comps and Prompts**

 **QLFC, Round Seven:** CHASER 3: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — The Cradle of Life (2003) [7. (dialogue) "Well, that did not go according to plan.", 14. (word) deplorable, 15. (genre) angst]

 **Romance Awareness:** Soulmate marks that grow along with your relationship - e.g constellations that start with a single star, seeds that grow into flowers/trees/vines, eggs that hatch

 **Assignment 2:** Notable Witches and Wizards, Tilly Toke - Write about a witch or wizard saving a Muggle from harm's way.

 **IHC** : 326. Spell - Incarcerous

 **365** : 209. Plot Point - an almost kiss

 **SC — Days of the Year** — June 18 2018 - International Picnic Day: Alternatively, write about summer.

 **SC — Summer Prompts** — (theme) Summer Romance

 **SC — Birthstones** — Alexandrite - (dialogue) "I thought I'd hit rock bottom, but apparently rock bottom has a basement."

 **SC — Flowers** — Dahlia - (title) Impossible Girl

 **SC — Elemental Challenge** — (word) embers

 **SC — Shay's Musical Challenge** — 23. Spongebob the Musical - write about someone who never feels special. alt, write about someone saving the day

 **SC — Gryffindor Prompts** — Easy: Lily Evans

 **SC — Summer Astronomy** — September 23 2018 - September Equinox. Prompt: (theme) Last day of Summer

 **WC — Character Appreciation** — 8. (house) Gryffindor

 **WC — Disney Challenge** — C1. Mary Poppins - Prompt Set: umbrella, cheerful, efficient

 **WC — Cookie's Crafty Corner** — Knit Snitch: Include a character whose name starts with V.

 **WC — Book Club** — Luke: (dialogue) "You know I'll take care of you.", (scenario) cheating of wife/husband, (word) sedated

 **WC — Showtime** — 14. Tomorrow is a Latter Day - (dialogue) "I'd do anything for you."

 **WC — Amber's Attic** — T5. Pin-Up Girl: Write about someone dressing up.

 **WC — CYB** — S5. Lost Boy - Ruth B, D2. "Aim for the moon and land amongst the stars, or whatever it is."

 **WC — Ami's Audio Admirations** — 14. On Air: Use the prompt set: (colour) red, (setting) at night, (word) glow

 **WC — Em's Emporium** — 3. Sophy (The Crownless Queen): Write a marauder era fic.

 **Word Count:** 2660


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